The semiconductor industry remains one of the most important sectors of the global economy. As of October 2025, NVidia remains the most valuable publicly traded company in the world. Its competitor Intel is in the news as well, as the United States government took a 9.9% stake in the business. Meanwhile, demand for chips seems insatiable, fuelling not only consumer electronics but also the AI boom.
Of the three major chipmakers – Intel, NVidia, and AMD – Intel has been involved with the most federal litigation since 2020, and by a wide margin. It’s been involved in nearly 300 such cases, whereas runner-up NVidia has been involved in 69.
Litigation is steady over time for Intel, and their primary case type is patent, as befitting a technology company. Other major case types include securities and employment. Intel is the plaintiff in significantly more lawsuits than most major corporations featured in Law Street – they are the defendant only 60% of the time, according to Docket Alarm. In the plaintiff’s chair, they are once again most often involved in patent lawsuits. Their top law firms are Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, Perkins Coie, and Munger, Tolles & Olson.
NVidia is in a similar position as Intel, with steady litigation that involves patents. However, they have also started to receive some copyright lawsuits, tied to the training of artificial intelligence models.
In these cases, NVidia is represented largely by DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
AMD, which is involved in only 61 lawsuits since 2020, has an even greater proportion of their litigation concerning intellectual property. Their primary law firms are Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, O’Melveny & Myers, and DLA Piper.
Despite the increasing importance of this sector, and the increasing involvement of the government, federal litigation remains steady. As the market consolidates, the sector may see more interest from government regulators.
